Strickland & Jones, PC

Regrettably, my experience with Strickland & Jones last year was utterly abysmal.
My parents had used S&J for their annual taxes for several years; when I moved out of my parents’ house at 19, I hoped to use S&J’s services, too. In 2009 I earned some money from a part-​time job, and S&J included that income on my parents’ tax return, which worked swimmingly for everyone. In 2010, my father spoke to S&J and indicated that we’d like to do the same thing for our 2010 taxes, explaining that I had worked full time during the year as an independent contractor and had earned quite a bit more money than in 2009. S&J agreed to handle everything just as they had done in 2009. We mailed all of our tax paperwork into S&J in late February 2010, and were not contacted again. We expected that everything would be processed appropriately, and we’d receive a bill in the mail.
Unfortunately, S&J was unable to include my income on my parents’ tax return, but we were not informed of this problem until around 6:00 PM on Monday, 18 April 2011 — TAX DAY. As a result, I was smacked with a large penalty from the IRS.
When I called Mr. Jones to express my confusion, he rudely said that I’d mailed my tax paperwork in «too late» for them to process it on time. First of all, they still managed to process my parents’ tax data (which is much more complicated than mine) on time, and it was all received at the same time. Moreover, I should have been informed IMMEDIATELY when S&J determined that they would be unable to combine my income with my parents’ as they had done for 2009, and especially when they determined that they’d be unable to file my taxes on time.
It’s abundantly clear that they prioritized my parents’ taxes over mine because they are able to charge my father more money for the increased work load. However, I’m still confused by why they refrained from informing me that our situation had changed.
I’ll never give another cent to this dishonest, incompetent company, and I recommend that you don’t, either.